BLANK SHEET: THE LANDSCAPE OF POSSIBILITIES
BLANK SHEET: THE LANDSCAPE OF POSSIBILITIES
C(2018) CHIBU NDUBUISI 1/1/2018.(Week 1)
Peace be upon you.
Israel Salanter noted that;
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. But I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my country. When I found I couldn’t change my country, I began to focus on my town. However, I discovered that I couldn’t change the town, and so as I grew older, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, but I’ve come to recognize that if long ago I had started with myself, then I could have made an impact on my family. And, my family and I could have made an impact on our town. And that, in turn, could have changed the country and we could all indeed have changed the world.
What this simply means is that “there are some dimensions to our own inner development that simply cannot be addressed without our engagement in the work of taking responsibility for the world in one way or another”. Bernard Shaw notes that “the possibilities are numerous once we decide to act”. Mark Zukerberg added by noting that “you will never know as much as you need to in the beginning no matter what”. Sue Desmond Hellman equally averred that “the world won’t get better by itself; we must set big goals and hold ourselves accountable every step of the way”. To cap it up with the observations by Charles Darwin, that “it is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most receptive to change”.
Just like a blank sheet, the future is filled with many landscapes of possibilities, which we can’t decipher from the start. This year might be filled with the possibility of a scientific breakthrough in discovering the cure of many incurable diseases, it might be a year of many families transiting out of poverty, possibility of many warring parties coming to reconciliation and building a more holistic partnership.
In his 2007 Harvard Commencement address Bill Gates notes that “reducing inequity is the highest human achievement”. Erica Brown writes that “reinvention begins with a question about the practices we are ready to question and reinvent”. The 1994 Human Development Report listed seven essential dimensions of human security: to include Economic security, Food security, Health security, Environmental security, Personal security Community security and Political security.
We can take up on the challenge of confronting a particular type of security and making sure we commit our lives to it, taking in to account that “both we and the world are works in progress and will continue to be so, and the more we can keep that in our awareness, the more successful and effective we will be on both fronts”. However the road is not always linear. The journey from the real to the ideal, starting point to the destination is fraught with setbacks and disappointments.
We can write in the blank sheet about the possibilities of teaching the imperative of peace by ensuring that the 8 pillars of Positive Peace (well-functioning government, sound business environment, low levels of corruption, high levels of human capital, acceptance of the right of others, free flow of information, equitable distribution of resources and good relation with neighbours) reigns in Nigeria and other part of the globe we may find ourselves. The use of force never ends a conflict.
Bill Gates noted in the Munich Security Conference in 2017 that “ of the 125 countries where polio was endemic,122 countries have eliminated the disease only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria have never been polio free. We can help write in the blank sheet with concrete actions how polio was eradicated in Nigeria when we support a new type of weapon of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics availability.
Vance Havner a Christian evangelist writes that “God uses broken things. It takes a broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give us rain, broken grains to gives us bread”. I will add that the broken women of Ethiopia who could not name their children after birth for fear that the will not live galvanized global action to come to their aid with the provision of good Maternal and Child Health (MCH) care. The broken or deformed legs of polio victims equally galvanized the creation of Paralympic with the idea of Dr Ludwig Guttmann and the support of GAVI the vaccine alliance are making sure that children are no longer deformed.
We can start “Myth Busting Campaigns” because the cost of waiting is higher. We can look for those blind spot leaders are not seeing and make it a point of reference to them to help influence policy changes. The Anti-torture and compulsory treatment of gunshot victims bills signed by President Buhari into law is step in the right direction.
The only way to improve the world is by improving ourselves and the only way to improve ourselves is by improving the world.
Celebrate the New Year with the thought of defeating probability with possibility.
Peace be with you.
Read more at chibundubuisi.blogspot.com
C(2018) CHIBU NDUBUISI 1/1/2018.(Week 1)
Peace be upon you.
Israel Salanter noted that;
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. But I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my country. When I found I couldn’t change my country, I began to focus on my town. However, I discovered that I couldn’t change the town, and so as I grew older, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, but I’ve come to recognize that if long ago I had started with myself, then I could have made an impact on my family. And, my family and I could have made an impact on our town. And that, in turn, could have changed the country and we could all indeed have changed the world.
What this simply means is that “there are some dimensions to our own inner development that simply cannot be addressed without our engagement in the work of taking responsibility for the world in one way or another”. Bernard Shaw notes that “the possibilities are numerous once we decide to act”. Mark Zukerberg added by noting that “you will never know as much as you need to in the beginning no matter what”. Sue Desmond Hellman equally averred that “the world won’t get better by itself; we must set big goals and hold ourselves accountable every step of the way”. To cap it up with the observations by Charles Darwin, that “it is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most receptive to change”.
Just like a blank sheet, the future is filled with many landscapes of possibilities, which we can’t decipher from the start. This year might be filled with the possibility of a scientific breakthrough in discovering the cure of many incurable diseases, it might be a year of many families transiting out of poverty, possibility of many warring parties coming to reconciliation and building a more holistic partnership.
In his 2007 Harvard Commencement address Bill Gates notes that “reducing inequity is the highest human achievement”. Erica Brown writes that “reinvention begins with a question about the practices we are ready to question and reinvent”. The 1994 Human Development Report listed seven essential dimensions of human security: to include Economic security, Food security, Health security, Environmental security, Personal security Community security and Political security.
We can take up on the challenge of confronting a particular type of security and making sure we commit our lives to it, taking in to account that “both we and the world are works in progress and will continue to be so, and the more we can keep that in our awareness, the more successful and effective we will be on both fronts”. However the road is not always linear. The journey from the real to the ideal, starting point to the destination is fraught with setbacks and disappointments.
We can write in the blank sheet about the possibilities of teaching the imperative of peace by ensuring that the 8 pillars of Positive Peace (well-functioning government, sound business environment, low levels of corruption, high levels of human capital, acceptance of the right of others, free flow of information, equitable distribution of resources and good relation with neighbours) reigns in Nigeria and other part of the globe we may find ourselves. The use of force never ends a conflict.
Bill Gates noted in the Munich Security Conference in 2017 that “ of the 125 countries where polio was endemic,122 countries have eliminated the disease only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria have never been polio free. We can help write in the blank sheet with concrete actions how polio was eradicated in Nigeria when we support a new type of weapon of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics availability.
Vance Havner a Christian evangelist writes that “God uses broken things. It takes a broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give us rain, broken grains to gives us bread”. I will add that the broken women of Ethiopia who could not name their children after birth for fear that the will not live galvanized global action to come to their aid with the provision of good Maternal and Child Health (MCH) care. The broken or deformed legs of polio victims equally galvanized the creation of Paralympic with the idea of Dr Ludwig Guttmann and the support of GAVI the vaccine alliance are making sure that children are no longer deformed.
We can start “Myth Busting Campaigns” because the cost of waiting is higher. We can look for those blind spot leaders are not seeing and make it a point of reference to them to help influence policy changes. The Anti-torture and compulsory treatment of gunshot victims bills signed by President Buhari into law is step in the right direction.
The only way to improve the world is by improving ourselves and the only way to improve ourselves is by improving the world.
Celebrate the New Year with the thought of defeating probability with possibility.
Peace be with you.
Read more at chibundubuisi.blogspot.com
According to the local saying that its only when the wall cracks the lizard can come in... So also with life, only when you see impossibility, that failure sets in.never give room for the crack of impossibility so as to avoid the lizard of failure to come in. Man know thy self says James Allen's. Thanks boss for the inspiration
ReplyDeletethanks Mr Charles
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